


An Unexpected Guest

by kg1507



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Female Friendship, Friendship, Gen, Lena Luthor Knows Kara Danvers Is Supergirl, Lena Luthor Needs a Hug, Other, POV Lena Luthor, POV Nia Nal, SuperCorp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:35:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22763332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kg1507/pseuds/kg1507
Summary: Lena has one hand on the edge of her door, the other grips the knob from the inside, hidden from view from the last person she ever expected to see standing in her hallway.After a brief pause, Lena snaps herself out of her stupor and turns her head slightly, making her confusion obvious. "Nia - what are you doing here?"
Relationships: Kara Danvers & Lena Luthor, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor, Lena Luthor & Nia Nal
Comments: 13
Kudos: 325





	An Unexpected Guest

"...Hey."

It's almost eight at night, still relatively early in the evening, but Lena has been up since five and hasn't stopped working until ten minutes ago. She's physically exhausted and mentally drained, having to constantly be on alert knowing that Lex, the brother she killed and never expected to return, is actually alive and walking this new Earth and whose name is back on her building. Lena has one hand on the edge of her door, the other grips the knob from the inside, hidden from view from the last person she ever expected to see standing in her hallway.

After a brief pause, Lena snaps herself out of her stupor and turns her head slightly, making her confusion obvious. "Nia - what are you doing here?" She feels a slight pang of guilt as Nia visibly recoils from the accusatory tone in her voice.

Nia fidgets, twining her fingers together in various contortions and Lena can see that she's shaking. "Hi. Um, so… I know we don't know each other very well, and you're probably really busy - like, _stupid_ busy, and I totally get it if you say no, but um," Nia's chin starts to wobble and her eyes fill with tears. "Brainy broke up with me yesterday and I thought I was handling it but like… everyone keeps asking me if I'm ok and if I want to talk about it and I don't really _know_ if I want to talk about it, and it's just… it's hard to be around them because even when he's not there, he's _there,_ you know?"

Lena opens her mouth to offer some sort of reply, but Nia continues to babble.

"And I just don't want to think about him but all I _can_ do is think about him, and I just really need to not think about him, and I don't… I don't want to be alone right now." She wipes red-rimmed eyes that Lena knows from experience have already shed too many tears, and sniffles sadly. "Can I just… hang out with you for a little while?"

Lena pauses, her lips slightly parted as her brain tries to catch up. Her first instinct is to turn her away; she hardly knows the girl, apart from a handful of comments at game nights and Catco functions. She's more Kara's friend than anything, and Lena has no use for friendships anymore, or so she keeps telling herself. She has half a mind to tell her to go drown her sorrows in Kara's embrace and leave her alone, but when she speaks, what comes out instead is -

"Y-yeah, sure…" And the door widens to accommodate her impromptu guest.

Nia lets out a breath of relief and smiles so gratefully that it breaks Lena's heart a little. She steps inside and Lena closes the door with a soft click. There is an awkward silence as the two women face each other, neither of them knowing what to say next.

Nia clears her throat, looking around the immaculate penthouse. "Wow, your place is amazing," She takes a few steps forward and lightly runs her fingertips along the edge of an expensive end table that has never held anything more personal than a glass of her favorite scotch. "Very…" She searches for a word to describe what she sees in a way that complements Lena's tastes, biting her lip nervously. "Modern." She finishes.

"Thank you," Lena says. "I don't like a lot of fuss." It's a lie. Lillian didn't like a lot of fuss; if an object didn't have a practical use, it was junk. Growing up, Lena never had knick knacks - she had expensive abstract sculptures that were more of a status indicator than decoration, and there had been very little color in any of her possessions. She'd never even been allowed to paint her room anything brighter than a pale grey, and even then Lillian had turned her nose up. As a child, Lena had fantasized about filling her future home with color and warmth and all the things the Luthors had denied her. She didn't know whether she had simply outgrown those desires, or if she had just been conditioned to stop having them in the first place.

Lena gestured to the couch. "Please, make yourself comfortable." Nia sat, stiffly perched on the very edge of the cushion and folded her hands in her lap like an obedient child. It reminded Lena of her first few weeks with the Luthors as a little girl, terrified that one wrong move would cause them to cast her aside. She often wishes she could go back in time and tell her past self that living in their cage was worse than the fear of being set free.

Lena clears her throat, feeling awkward. She realizes now that she has to entertain her guest, but has no idea what that means. Hanging out with Kara had always been so easy, even at the very beginning stages of their friendship, and Andrea was the one who had pulled her out of her shell all those years ago and made her feel like a person worth knowing. Lena was suddenly painfully aware of her lack of social skills, especially now that she had (she _had,_ damn it,) sworn off friendship. But it wasn't like she could change her mind and send Nia away now, right?

"Do you want a drink?" Lena makes her way to the bar, immediately pouring herself a glass of scotch and reaching for a second for Nia. It helps her nerves to keep her hands busy.

Nia makes a face. "I'm not really a huge drinker, to be honest. Sorry."

Lena puts the glass away with a wave of her hand. "Don't apologize. You don't mind if I do, though?"

Nia shakes her head quickly. "Of course not, please, don't hold back on my account. Really, you don't even have to hang out with me if, like, you've got stuff you need to do. I can just sit here and watch tv for a bit. Honestly, I just feel better knowing there's someone else nearby instead of me sitting in my apartment alone."

Lena drops two ice cubes in her glass and stopps the bottle, making her way back around the bar. "Nonsense. I'm not going to just pretend you're not here. Is there anything else I can get you to drink?" She takes a sip, enjoying the way the brown liquid warms the back of her throat as she waits for Nia's answer.

Nia pauses, a sheepish look on her face. "Actually, I was going to stop for hot chocolate on my way here, but the kiosk was already closed. When I was little, whenever I was upset, my mom would make this _amazing_ hot chocolate with mini marshmallows and whipped cream. Nothing ever felt so terrible after a few sips of that." She smiles to herself, an unseen memory softening her face.

Lena averts her gaze, watching the ice cubes in her glass melt. "I miss my mom, too." She says softly. A moment of silent understanding passes between them, and then Lena takes a seat next to Nia, careful to keep at least two feet between them. She hands her the remote. "Pick something." It’s been years since Lena had actively watched anything on a television that wasn't the news, and couldn't have told you the current prime-time lineup if her life depended on it.

Nia takes the remote, smiling gratefully. As she began to flip through the channels, Lena nurses her drink and tries to empty her mind. So much depended on her being at the top of her game now that Lex was back. He thought she was still determined to make Non Nochere a reality, but the truth was that she had seen the folly in her foolishness, how trying to control free will was no better than what Lex was looking to do now. She knew he was up to something bigger than what he had already told her, and while she had no intentions of helping him achieve whatever vile endgame he had in mind it was easier to keep an eye on him if he thought she was on his side, so for now she was playing at furthering her past aspirations.

Nia pauses her channel surfing on some food-based competition show and pulls her knees close to her chest, settling into the plush back of the couch. Lena doesn’t pay much attention to the screen; she had recently dug up old research of hers and Jack’s and spent the last few days combing through his data concerning nanotechnology. Lex had never been very impressed with Jack Spheer or his ambitions, and Lena was hoping to use that to her advantage in the near future. She was running calculations over and over in her head and sipping at her scotch, tuning out the sounds around her. She isn’t sure how much time has passed when Nia abruptly hits the mute button in the middle of the food critique, nonchalantly turning her head to say -

“By the way, I’m Dreamer.”

Lena chokes on the last sip of her drink, tears springing to her eyes as she coughs violently. She bends forward to put the glass down and feels Nia’s hand on her back for a split second before it pulls away. Lena clears her throat and touches her hand to her chest, meeting Nia’s concerned face.

“You’re _what?”_ Lena asks, her voice strained. She gives another weak cough.

Nia winces apologetically. “Dreamer? The superhero?”

Lena stares. “Yes, I know who Dreamer is. What I don’t understand is why you’re telling me now, or _at all_ to be frank.” Lena’s brow furrows.

Nia looks completely unphased and shrugs. “I mean, I know we don’t know each other very well yet - but everyone else knows and I was planning on telling you months ago after the whole thing with Lex was over, but you stopped coming to game nights - I even tried to make an appointment at your office, but you never got back to me,” Nia looks away, drumming her fingers on her thigh. “And I figured just because things are weird right now with everyone, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be in the loop too.”

There is a moment of silence and Lena is torn between feeling unspeakably touched and utterly exasperated. “Nia… I’m not “in the loop” anymore. You know that, don’t you?” She hadn’t planned on going on, but Lena feels the words tumbling from her lips before she can stop them. “And even if I wanted to be, too much has happened for any of the others to ever trust me again. I mean, you understand what I tried to do, right? I tried to implement _mind control_ over the entirety of our Earth. I… I hurt Kara. I stole from her. I used _kryptonite_ on her - there’s no coming back from that. None of them would ever look at me the same way ever again.” She feels her throat tighten and tries to push the feeling away, tries to remember that even though she’s longing for a second chance, it’s not in the realm of possibility. If Lex knew about her doubts, he would use that knowledge to completely destroy both her and everyone she cares about. Because as much as she tries to deny it, she _does_ still care. Even when she was at her lowest, even when she hated Kara, a small part of her couldn’t abandon the love she’d always felt. It didn’t erase the pain or numb the betrayal, but Lena has discovered that the more time that passes, the more she tries to kill the part of her that still loves, the more like Lex she discovers she is becoming - and that scares her more than anything else.

Nia shocks her by taking her hand. It’s warm and gentle and the smile that accompanies it almost brings Lena to tears. She doesn’t understand how they’ve gone from zero to a hundred so quickly and is not enjoying the abrupt ride into this apparent heart-to-heart. “Do you want to know how I know that everything is going to be ok?” She squeezes her hand. “My powers allow me to see into the future. It’s not always clear, and there’s always a chance that it could change, but for the last few months I’ve had these quick, sporadic visions. Barely a blink, but they’re there, and I know what I see.” She smiles. “I see all of us, standing side by side. _All_ of us, Lena.”

Lena chokes back a sob, wiping at her eyes with her free hand. “I want to believe you, I do, but I just… I don’t even know where to start.”

Nia shifts a little closer and puts her arm around Lena’s shoulder, without a trace of previous nerves or awkwardness. She doesn’t know how to be anything other than a friend, even to someone who believes herself unworthy of it. “I have a watch, you know. Want me to call her?”

Lena chuckles, letting her head fall onto Nia’s shoulder and accepting the warmth she's been craving for months now. She shakes her head. “Not right now. Later. I’m supposed to be comforting _you_ tonight, not the other way around.”

Nia pauses, trying to decide if she should push the matter further and ultimately choosing not to. It’s not up to her to make the first step, and she knows it. Nia picks up the remote again and points it at the tv. “Have you ever heard of American Ninja Warrior? Because I think this is the year a woman finally makes it to the top of Mount Midoriyama.”

* * *

Nia doesn’t remember falling asleep, but she wakes up smelling something amazing. She pushes herself into a sitting position and stretches, feeling her shoulders crack pleasantly as the kinks work themselves out. Lena’s couch might look nice, but it’s definitely not made for sleeping. Nia feels a pang in her heart and she thinks about Brainy, missing the mornings where she woke up next to him and wondering if she ever would again. Sunlight spills into the room; it’s a beautiful day in National City and there’s not a cloud in the sky. She’s going to take it as a good omen for the day ahead.

Nia’s eyes find the steaming mug sitting on the table beside her and she picks up the handwritten note next to it, smiling widely as her eyes travel down the hastily written lines. Her fingers touch the page and the ink smears - she couldn’t have left more than five minutes ago. It seems that Lena won’t need Nia’s watch after all.

Nia picks up the mug, inhaling deeply before taking a sip of the second-best hot chocolate she’s ever had and sighs, feeling hopeful for whatever future lay ahead of them, knowing in her heart of hearts that it was a brighter one than it had been yesterday. 

**Author's Note:**

> For fic-writing purposes we're gonna pretend that Brainy is not working with Lex.
> 
> We're also gonna pretend that Lena is not working with Lex.
> 
> I just like to pretend sometimes.


End file.
